DE 100 61 934 B4 and DE 102 45 058 A1 disclose machine tools, which, due to their make, are distinguished by a special rigidity and thus also a high-cutting capacity as well as high accuracy during the machining operation. This machine tool has a dimensionally rigid machine column at the front end of which a work spindle is guided in guide rails and is arranged in a horizontally and vertically movable fashion. The universal machine tool comprises a highly rigid machine bed which is arranged at the front end of the machine column and the top side of which accommodates a horizontal linear guide for a workpiece table that can be moved by means of a linear motor in a further coordinate axis Z along the machine bed.
The chips accumulating with universal machine tools can be relatively extensive. For this reason, the protection of the machine units and components from flying chips as well as the collection and removal of accumulating chips have always been an inherent problem in the machining of metals by means of universal machine tools.
It has thus been proposed in the prior art to provide chip collecting and removing spaces when machine tools are designed. For example, DE 198 30 391 A1 proposes a milling machine in which the workpiece spindle is movably guided in a cantilever arrangement and a chip collecting space extending in the transverse direction relative to the machine bed is located at the rear end of the machine table in the direct vicinity of the workpiece clamping surface of the workpiece table. However, this design is not very suitable for a workpiece table which can be moved horizontally on the machine bed in a longitudinal direction since a reliable chip collection and removal would not be ensured in this case.
In addition, the provision of a chip collecting space is accompanied by design limitations as far as the fundamental configuration of the machine frame and of the machine column is concerned. An important aspect is to guarantee a sufficiently high rigidity of both the machine column and the machine bed.
A heavy-duty machining center which ensures a reliable and extremely fast chip disposal from the work area has been presented by the company StarragHeckert, by means of the CWK 400 D machining centers. However, the machine configuration of this machining center, which is a cross-bed design having an inclined bed, is rather complicated and not very compact.